Gilmour Honours Barrett

Pink Floyd legend Dave Gilmour paid tribute to former bandmate Syd Barrett's innovative songwriting on the troubled star's 60th birthday yesterday - Published: 08 January 2006

Barrett has lived as a virtual recluse after leaving the group in 1968, but Gilmour insists his gifted contribution to the band will never be forgotten.

He says, "We sat down with him after listening to all his songs and said, 'Syd, play this one. Syd, play that one.'

"We sat him on a chair with a couple of mics in front of him and got him to sing.

"The potential of some of those songs, they could have been fantastic. But trying to find a technique of working with Syd was so difficult.

"You had to pre-record tracks without him, working from one version of the song he had done, and then sit Syd down afterwards and try to get him to play and sing along.

"Or you could try and dub everything else on top. He'd change the song every time."